Damned If You Do
by gerankel
Summary: 10 years after Naraku's defeat Sesshoumaru finds himself in a battle of wills with his 17 year old ward Rin. It seems its a battle he's not destined to win. Or is he...


Disclaimer: As I'm sure we all know by now, Inuyasha and all other characters except those which I have created belong solely to Rumiko Takahashi. Hi'iki, the Oracle priestess and any other OC belongs to me and me alone as well as this story concept. As fair warning this story will have various Japanese terms and phrases interspersed in it. I know many do not like this but in those cases where I used them I felt it necessary to the impact and flow of the story. I will provide a glossary for this story where needed. I dislike typing disclaimers for every part of a story that I post so consider this to be a blanket disclaimer for the whole of my story.  
  
The prologue takes place before Sesshoumaru has met Jaken or Rin and the rest of the story takes place about 10 years of so after Naraku's defeat.  
  
I refer to the various characters clothing as yukata or kosode for a reason. What we think of as the 'traditional' kimono actually is a relatively modern construction. It was developed in the Edo period (about 1600 to 1865) and as such would not have been present in the Sengoku Jidai. The word 'kimono' (in reference to what we call the actual traditional garment of today) itself was coined in the Meiji era (about 1860 to 1920?) so hence the characters would never have even used the word for what they were wearing except as a general term. The word actually means "clothing" in Japanese and refers to all clothing in general.  
  
Prologue  
  
The priestess raised her eyes form the gazing pool with an air of detached contemplation. She'd known that eventually the great Sesshoumaru-sama would find and ultimately recover that which had been lost to the Oracle so long ago. Her greatest shame had been that at the time of its loss she had been too green in her duties to foretell the coming of the thief who had made away with it. For many years she'd regretted the loss of the sacred amulet but had no way to retrieve it herself. Her regrets were not centered on her own wants or needs but that of the Oracle's. As it's priestess and channeling medium it was her duty to interpret the signs and images of each persons' fate that the Oracle foretold. With the loss of the sacred amulet part of the Oracle's power had been lost. Though the Oracle had long ago forgiven her, it was after all a benevolent entity, she still felt that she was somehow not worthy of her role and had long sought one strong and cunning enough to do what she now could not.  
  
At the age of 12 she had been permanently bonded to this shrine as its medium and as such could not leave the shrine grounds without said amulet. Since the day of her bonding to the Oracle in a sacred ceremony she had never regretted her life or her special abilities to channel and divine prophecies for those who could pay the steep price. Few realized just what that price entailed. So desperate were they for any means or method to reshape their destiny they thought nothing of giving up a portion of their limited number of years in this world of here and now.  
  
In age she appeared to be nothing more than the young girl she once was. She neither aged nor grew infirm and sickness had never touched her. The few months or years that the patrons of the oracle willingly gave up sustained her and kept her young in perpetuity. Only when another young girl with the special gifts of a seer were born and was persuaded to take her place would she be allowed to resume her life for the limited number of years normally allotted to human women. As with every priestess that had come before her; she had no knowledge of when or where this successor would appear however. Of all the souls on this Earth there were only two whose futures the Oracle could not see -- her's and that of her successor. So till that time came.  
  
She stirred the waters of the divination pool with her fingers erasing the picture of the handsome youkai lord she saw walking along the path to the oracle shrine. The waters once again became murky and she reached for the towel next to her with which to dry her hands. As she stood to walk out and greet Lord Sesshoumaru the pool suddenly pulsed with an unexpected display of power. Surprised, she turned back and gazed intently into the water. In her experience this had never occurred before. The oracle pool could only be activated with the exchange of life energy from petitioner to diviner. Curious beyond measure she called out softly, "What do you wish me to see wise oracle?"  
  
The view of Lord Sesshoumaru reappeared before her in the waters of the pool as he continued to make his way up the steep mountain slope. She gasped in amazement as the amulet silently began to pulse with unseen power as it rested in a hidden fold of Sesshoumaru's yukata. Almost magically the Oracle fed the knowledge to her. The amulet was connected to the shrine and allowed to diviner to temporarily leave the grounds when the need was great. She now understood that the pool had called out and connected to the amulet as it was but an extension of its power.  
  
She was still more surprised when the great youkai lord's destiny began to appear before her. She surmised that because he was in direct physical contact with the amulet and the amulet was connected to the pool that it was enough to display the destiny that would unfold before him.  
  
The waters swirled rapidly and then cleared before her. Images.pictures of what was to be were unveiled before her and she gasped in surprise yet again. Inwardly she laughed at the great irony that fate would inflict upon such a great and arrogant taiyoukai. Somehow she got the feeling that Lord Sesshoumaru would not be happy with what she was seeing. Pride does go before the fall, she thought knowingly. With as much pride as Lord Sesshoumaru had evidentially he would learn this the hard way.  
  
The waters swirled and cleared yet again. Images of a pair of crossed swords appeared before her. Both were miraculous pieces of craftsmanship and both were destined to change the lives of their wielders for the better. One would embrace his, the other scorn what his sire had left for him. Momentarily the priestess was perplexed as to why the InuTaisho would leave such a powerful weapon to his cold and indifferent son. Surely one such as himself could not use such a divine object of compassion and mercy.  
  
Again the images changed. The slight distortion of what she was divining told her that what she was seeing was events that would unfold in the young lord's future. Images of the future were never so clear and precise as that of the past, and with good reason. Human beings and youkai alike had an annoying amount of free-will making her divinations quite hard to read and predict at times but so far as she knew, the Oracle had never once been wrong. Has she been an old crone she would have practically cackled with glee. Oh, the irony, she thought.  
  
"The sins of the father indeed."  
  
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The inu taiyoukai continued his climb up the steep slope to the mountain top shrine of the Oracle. Well known for its ability to draw both human and youkai alike, he was pleasantly surprised to find that on this increasingly windswept cold night that he was alone in his trek to the top. This, all things considered, suited him just fine. A loner, he was quite used to his own company. Having no one to worry about except himself came in quite handy when in the midst of battle. He was a firm believer in the old saying, "The only person one can depend on is oneself." And so far that old saying had served him well.  
  
He gave no heed to the swelling winds that whipped his hair around his face and made the fluffy mane-like appendage over his shoulder ripple vigorously. He could not however, ignore the sudden pulsing of the amulet he had hidden in his yukata. As quickly as it had begun though, the amulet went silent again. He correctly guessed that somehow the amulet and the oracle pool were communicating with each other. This could only mean that he would reach the shrine in a matter of minutes.  
  
This pleased him greatly as he wanted nothing so much as to get this onerous debt paid and over with. As a young youkai still wet behind the ears, he had accompanied his father when he had come here for advice. The Oracle, sensing the great power of the Inutaisho, made a deal with him then. Instead of a measure of his life force, which would have sustained the female diviner for a great many years, the Oracle asked only that they seek out and retrieve an amulet which had been stolen from the shrine when the priestess had been newly bonded to the Oracle and was not as experienced in her duties. Agreeing to this arrangement, the Inutaisho was given knowledge that had proved beneficial to defeating a large group of nekoyoukai that they had been engaged in a heated battle with for some time.  
  
Unfortunately, the Inutaisho had not lived to see his half of the bargain be completed. It fell to Sesshoumaru to uphold the family's honor and deliver the amulet to the Oracle. So now Sesshoumaru found himself with amulet in hand, ready to discharge his family's debt.  
  
Sesshoumaru forced any temptation to seek a divination from his thoughts. Any lesser being would have not thought twice about trying to wheedle a reading or two from the Oracle. Knowledge of ones' fate was a heady thing and many came to regret it as they lay dying knowing. While on their deathbed they then realized that they may have had another few months or years left of their lives and that they could have been spent with loved ones or wrapping up affairs had they not made such a hasty decision.  
  
Sesshoumaru was not so foolish as to give up what could never be replaced. And in all honesty, he didn't really believe in the Oracle's power to foretell the future in any case. He firmly believed that the future was what one made of it. Something that had yet to occur simply could not be set in stone. So great were all the variables in life that no one person or thing could possibly pin down the one path a soul was sure to follow.  
  
He had been following the path that had been loosely winding up the mountain for sometime now. He rounded the last turn in the path and the entrance to the shrine appeared before him. Not surprisingly, the young diviner stood in the doorway of the cave-like shrine as if she had known exactly when he would arrive. He strode determinedly to stand a few feet in front of her and regarded her thoughtfully a moment before executing an uncharacteristic bow. "Priestess."  
  
"Lord Sesshoumaru. How good of you to come and return that which was taken from us so long ago. Finally the shame of this poor priestess can be expunged and the Oracle made whole again."  
  
"With this deed accomplished the debt incurred by my father is expunged." Sesshoumaru reached inside his yukata and placed the amulet, along with the arm it was still attached to, directly at her feet.  
  
She cocked a raised eyebrow at him and replied sardonically, "Was that really necessary, the extra bonus, I mean?"  
  
"A little reassurance that you will never be troubled by that particular worthless piece of trash again. And now, if you will excuse me, I do have other matter to attend to." He turned away and began to walk the way he had come when he was brought up short by the seemingly young priestess's voice.  
  
"A moment of your time please."  
  
Sesshoumaru stopped as he was about the round the bend that would take him out of the priestess's and hence the shrine's presence. While he did not turn around to look at her, she knew that he listened.  
  
"Moments before you arrived I had an occurrence which surprised even myself. As I was not in direct physical contact with any object of yours at the moment of the divination the revelations wrought were not entirely clear but it was enough for me to see the way of things to be. As this was the first time in my duties as diviner that this occurred on its own I can only assume that the Oracle deemed it important enough that you should know of it. Only once before in all the histories of the Oracle has it ever acted on it's own power, so honored you should be."  
  
Sesshoumaru was about to decline the reading and would have continued his trek down the mountain when suddenly it felt as if every muscle in his body was frozen and locked in place. Against his own formidable will, his body turned and faced the priestess who had begun to glow with an unearthly bluish white light. With her long ebony hair whipping about her face her body floated off the ground slightly and her voice resonated with a timber that clearly was not her own. It was discordant and eerie even to Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Listen and heed me well.The sins of the father will yet be visited upon both his sons. Many battles you have fought and won and many more will there be, though your greatest battle still lies ahead. Strong though you may be, this battle will not be won with sword or claw or strength of arm. Your opponent will be unlike any you have ever faced before or will ever face again. Your prize for victory will be great indeed. In truth, it will be the greatest treasure you will ever possess. The great sword Tenseiga that you find so worthless will be the beginning and the end to this battle and whoa to thee if you do not heed it's council. Just when you think that all is lost and you are defeated, look again, for you will have won."  
  
Sesshoumaru found himself released as quickly as he had been seized. He narrowed his eyes at the now exhausted priestess as she slumped against the entrance of the shrine. "Can you speak in nothing more than riddles then?"  
  
"Riddles you say. I wish I could be more clear but sadly that is the way of these things. The future is difficult to see, even for the Oracle. Always moving it is, changing and shifting. Though it seems confusing now to you, in this instance the Oracle is firm in it's precognition. If the Oracle says that this will be, it will be. Never has it failed."  
  
"You will have to pardon my disavowment and disbelief as I'm afraid that I find it rather hard to believe in something I cannot directly see or touch. One's future is a malleable substance that is ever changing and thus it's outcome is impossible to predict."  
  
"You do not believe in fate or destiny then?"  
  
"Fate is what you make of it," Sesshoumaru replied firmly. With this opinion he turned and disappeared around the bend of the mountain.  
  
"We shall Sesshoumaru-sama, we shall see." 


End file.
